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Saturday, 24 August 2013

Review ~ Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole

Ballantine Books
July 9th 2013

This interesting story takes us between two continents and two world wars and is told exclusively in the form of letters between the main characters. At first I found this a little disconcerting as the time sequences flutter around, but once I understood the general idea of the story, I became involved with what was happening. Primarily, the book unfolds a love story but at the same time it also captures the somewhat hedonistic attitude of living and loving during war time.

I’m not a huge fan of epistolary style novels, and I think had the book been just about one time frame, then the exclusivity of the correspondence could have become rather two dimensional. However, for me, the inclusion of a later story certainly saved the day and helped to keep the mystery alive, and in a way kept me turning the pages, although if I’m honest I would have preferred a straightforward narrative.

For me the real star of the story is the island of Skye itself, which is captured beautifully.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for my review copy.